At the present time, desktop computers use peripheral devices for user input. The mouse is the standard cursor control device used for most applications. The joystick is the standard input device used for gaming. Both of these devices are relatively bulky and are connected to the desktop computer. They are therefore generally unsuitable for portable computing. In one type of portable computer, the keyboard has integrated within it a joystick-like device which can be used to control the cursor instead of a mouse.
It would be desirable to provide joystick-like control in a hand portable device without having to integrate a joystick or use peripheral devices.
One way of providing joystick like control on a mobile phone would be to assign a key in a numeric keypad to each of 8 directional movements: North, South, East, West, North-East, South-East, South-West and North West. Thus the keypad would be operable as an 8-way directional controller. This would be achieved using the array of three columns and four rows of data input keys on a mobile phone by assigning three of the rows to 8-way directional control. For example, the keys for inputting “1”, “2”, “3”, “4”, “6”, “7”, “8” and “9” would respectively be used for moving NW, N, NE, W, E, SW, S and SE. The key for inputting “5” would be redundant.
The inventor has realised that such an arrangement is not intuitive and generally requires a user to locate a key visually before it is pressed. The inventor has additionally realised that this disadvantage arises from the presence of a redundant key, the use of a large number of keys to achieve the control, and the relatively large separation between, for example, keys for inputting “1” and “9”, that is for moving from NW to SE.